Is â??secularismâ? a problem for religious people? That should be a no-brainer. Secular means worldly, or of this world, and it is clear in the Bible and every other scripture that to choose eternal life is to resist worldly temptations, which include illicit pleasures, vain concern for honors, a complacent sense of oneâ??s own self-sufficiency, and in general an undue attachment to this life and to its goods. Nobody has said this better than Nephi: â??I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.â? Of course Nephiâ??s warning is perfectly compatible with a due appreciation of goods of this world (especially since the best of them continue in the next, glorified). But the warning stands.
Scholars, academics and other intellectuals of course have a right to disagree with this warning against â??secularism.â? Disagreement I can deal with. As a scholar of political philosophy and its history, you can say that Iâ??m in the disagreement business. But what I still find a bit frustrating is not to be able to agree on just what it is we are disagreeing about.
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